Ka-Zar the Great

Few characters carry the weight of Marvel's earliest days quite like Ka-Zar the Great, who burst onto the page in Marvel Mystery Comics #3 in 1940 — making him a true Golden Age original, conjured by creator Al Anders at the very dawn of what would become the Marvel universe. His run stretches an remarkable seven-plus decades, from 1940 all the way to 2012, a span that speaks to a genuinely enduring hold on readers' imaginations. Along the way he shares his adventures with some of the most storied figures in comics history — Namor, Jim Hammond, and The Vision among them — placing him squarely in the company of legends. With two key collector issues to his name and appearances in the celebrated Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics volumes, Ka-Zar the Great is an essential piece of Marvel's foundational mythology, the kind of character that serious Golden Age enthusiasts treasure.